New Year's with the Mañosos
by Proudofyoubabe
Summary: This is a one-shot sequel to Seeing Red, my Christmas story. This is what happens when Ranger and Steph go to the annual Mañoso New Year's Eve ball.


**New Year's with the Mañosos**

The week flew by, it really did. I've seen Ranger every day since Christmas and every day he brings me another little present. I think he's trying for the twelve days of Christmas. It's really kind of cute.

Yesterday I got a small set of All-Clad cookware. The day before I opened a box with 4 place settings of white _Hotel Collection_ China. And the day before that I received glassware…that matched. If this were Joe, it would seem like a not too subtle attempt at trying to domesticate me but since it's Ranger, I know his only plan is to make sure we have dishes to eat off and pots to cook from if we decide to stay at my apartment.

Today is New Year's Eve day and tonight we're going to the Hilton to celebrate with the Mañosos. Ranger told me that his family goes a little overboard with the holiday and I can tell that by _where_ we're celebrating and _what_ he's picked out for me to wear. Not that I'm complaining but I did pay a special visit to Mr. Alexander earlier today to get a trim, some subtle highlights and for him to create soft, perfect curls. And I did buy a new pair of 5" FMPs in silver to go with my new dress. Turns out, Ranger really likes my wild side.

I haven't met any of his family yet but they've all called me: his five siblings, his mom _and_ his dad. And each one thinks they are the only one that's gotten in touch. So now I know Celia, Michaela, Isabella, Lucy, Marco, Gloria and Ricardo and I like every single one of them. Now I just have to place a voice to a face, even though I suppose each one would resemble Ranger in some way and I wouldn't have much trouble with the big picture.

I still had a couple of hours before Ranger was going to pick me up so I cleaned out Rex's cage for New Year's and then decided to take a leisurely soak in my tub. I'd bought some bath salts that were supposed to relax me. I could use a little relaxing about now but I hoped they wouldn't make me sleepy. I wanted to be wide-awake for the festivities.

Unfortunately I fell asleep and only woke up when the water turned cold and I got a chill. The bad part about falling asleep in the tub was that now I only had forty minutes to get ready and I was a little prune-y.

I hoped the prune-y condition would go away before Ranger got here. I didn't want to have to explain the power of bath salts.

I didn't have to do my hair since it was already done and I'd fortuitously put it up when I took a bath. But I did need to put on makeup and get dressed. The dress had been a perfect fit, thank you Ella, and makeup wouldn't take me more than 20 minutes if I kept it simple. Unfortunately simple wasn't in my plan. I thought I'd do a cat eye and I bought gel liner to do so. Lula told me it was easy, that all I needed to do was swipe my lid with the liner and continue out to a point. Ha, easy for her to say. So far I'd put it on and wiped it off twice. I was about to call her for help when my doorbell rang. I hoped it wasn't Ranger 30 minutes early. I looked through the peephole and saw it was a floral deliveryman, so I opened the door.

"Stephanie Plum?" he asked.

"Yes?"

"This is for you," he said handing me a large bouquet of exotic looking flowers.

There was a little card attached to them so I opened it as I thanked the delivery guy and closed the door on him.

 _Thank you for taking a chance with me. I hope to make this a happy new year. Love, Carlos_

This was the second time he'd called himself _Carlos_ : once on the Christmas stocking and now as a name on a floral card. I wondered if he'd want me to call him Carlos? I'd have to ask.

I went back to my mirror and attempted the liner one more time. I muttered some expletives to myself, as once again I washed it off. I called Lula but there was no answer on her cell or in her apartment. She probably had a New Year's date and was getting ready too. Only one thing left to do, pay a visit to my friend Google.

More than one response to my _creating the perfect cat eye_ criteria told me to draw the extension first and then go back and make dots and dashes along my lash line and to connect them all at the end. It sounded stupid, but nothing else worked so I gave it a try.

Lo and behold, it came out perfect! Thank God. The rest of my makeup was easy, a few swipes of mascara, a little blush and some bight red lipstick. I shimmied into my dress and was admiring my new shoes in my full-length mirror when my doorbell rang again. I figured it was Ranger/Carlos this time and decided to see what would happen if I called him by his real name.

I opened the door without checking the peephole, which wasn't a very good idea, as instead of Ranger/Carlos there was a gun trained on me.

"I was sent here to teach you a lesson, Ms. Plum."

"Can't you see I'm busy? And I thought lessons happened between 9 and 3. It's now um…" I looked at my wrist as if looking for a watch I wasn't wearing. "It's now 7:00 and I have places to go and things to do," I tried to verbally disarm him so I could shut the door in his face.

I then realized that wasn't necessary, because out of the corner of my eye I saw Ranger coming up my stairs. He'd pulled a gun from somewhere and quicker than a jackrabbit he had the brute on the floor of my hallway and a gun to his neck.

"I could send a lesson right back in the form of you dead, but right now I'm feeling benevolent and I don't want to get my tux dirty. Tell me who sent you."

"Ronzoni Macaroni," he said with a smirk.

"Wrong answer," Ranger told him, digging the gun into his neck a little deeper while cuffing him one-handed.

"Babe, call Rangeman and get someone over here to dispose of this body."

"You're not going to kill him, are you?" I asked, pressing Rangeman on my phone and waiting for someone to pick up.

"Tell me again, who sent you?" Ranger demanded, aiming the gun up through the man's neck to his brain.

The gunman was silent this time; he probably didn't want to get pistol-whipped for another asshole answer.

Hal answered the Rangeman call and I told him what just happened.

"Slick and Junior are on their way," he told me. "Will that be enough or should I send a clean up crew too?"

I wasn't exactly sure what he meant by that but I didn't want to ask and sound stupid.

"Maybe you should," I told him instead, "Ranger's looking a little trigger happy."

"On their way. Call me if you need further assistance."

While we waited for the Rangeguys to come, Ranger tried to get the goon to talk but he seemed to be the strong, silent type. What Ranger did get was his name, by way of his driver's license. Now let me ask you this, what kind of a goon-for-hire would actually carry around _his own_ driver's license? Turns out this one did. Frank Cumella with an address in Woodside, NJ. A quick search showed an arrest record, no fooling, and a long time association with Simon "The Rug" Ruguzzi. Yes, the same Simon "The Rug" that brought Ranger to Hawaii to help me capture him. And the same Simon Ruguzzi that Lula and I apprehended in a parking garage at Newark airport. No wonder he sent this goon to teach me a lesson, mobsters aren't taken down by two _girls_. But I thought he was in prison?

I looked at Ranger, who obviously read my mind.

"He was released on a technicality; they couldn't match the gun that killed the 7 gang members back to him. He's been out for 6 months."

Shit.

Cumella was tied to my dining room chair listening to our back and forth banter, looking smug, when Slick and Junior arrived. They were followed shortly by Manny and Sal who looked happy that they didn't have to clean up blood on New Year's Eve. Probably wouldn't have been good karma for the following year.

Ranger gave the guys Cumella's driver's license and the print outs of the search we ran. Junior and Slick cut his ties from the chair but kept him cuffed and shackled and threw him over Sal's shoulder for the ride down to one of the Explorers.

We were alone at last and only going to be about twenty minutes late for the Mañoso bash.

"Did I tell you, you look beautiful tonight?" Ranger's pupils dilated black before he took my chin in his hand and give me a thorough kiss. There was definitely tongue action and lots of groping and grinding. Maybe we didn't need to head out to New York City after all.

"We should go," Ranger told me, our foreheads touching, when we came up for air. I wondered what it would take to get him to stay? As if reading my mind, he whispered, "I booked us a room at the Hilton so when you get _tired_ we can go upstairs."

"I guess I should grab some clothes then," I told him heading for my bedroom to pack a small bag.

"Why? You won't be needing them."

"Appearances, Ranger. Or should I call you Carlos?"

"It's all me, Babe but my family _will_ be calling me Carlos. They never got onboard with the street name."

I packed a bag anyway, said goodnight to Rex and then we headed out to the turbo that was parked at my back door. Mr. Weinstein was outside smoking a contraband cigarette and coughing.

"That will kill you," Ranger said to him, shaking his head at the smoke.

"Yeah, but what a way to go. Trouble is I've had this pack hidden for three years now and I think they've gone stale. Probably time to invest in a new one."

I don't know anything about stale cigarettes but if they're anything like stale Tastykakes, I got the picture. We wished Mr. Weinstein a Happy New Year and then Ranger opened the passenger door for me and helped me in.

"Chivalry is not dead," Mr. Weinstein coughed at us and Ranger winked at me.

There was traffic on 95 but we made pretty good time to the Lincoln tunnel. In fact, I think we made up the whole 20 minutes we lost to Cumella. Getting from the tunnel to 53rd and 6th was another story and took some inventive maneuvers on Ranger's part but we made it before nine. The Mañoso party was in the ballroom on 6, so we took the elevator up after leaving the turbo with valet service to park it for the night.

"Don't you worry about other people driving your car?" I asked him on the ride up.

"It's just a car. I worry more about people trying to take advantage of you. Cumella was lucky I didn't kill him on the spot but we can talk about that another time. Right now we're here to enjoy ourselves."

He took my hand as the elevator came to a stop on 6 and we exited together.

"Uncle Carlos!" a red headed little girl called excitedly as two other red heads turned in our direction.

"My sister Celia's children," he whispered to me before being embraced by three under six.

"Stella, Madeline, Jack, this is Stephanie," he formally told them. "Steph, my nieces and nephew."

"Red heads?" I whispered.

"Their father is Scottish. I'll introduce you," he said as a red headed man came over with an outstretched hand.

"Carlos, good to see that you've made it. Stephanie?" he added tentatively.

"Steph, this is my brother-in-law, Jason Hutchison. Jace, Stephanie Plum."

At this point two women who looked like slim, pretty, female versions of Ranger made their way over to us.

"Steph, these are my sisters, Celia and Lucy. Cee, Lucy, this is Stephanie Plum."

I was kissed and gushed over, just like Ranger predicted.

"You look so beautiful," Lucy told me as an older woman joined our impromptu reception.

"Stephanie, this is my mother Gloria. Mom, Steph."

Pretty soon I'd met almost everybody and we hadn't even set foot in the ballroom yet. They seemed to be coming out of the woodwork. I guess that's what happens when you have a big family and you never bring a date to anything. They were curious about me.

Once we made it inside, I was introduced to more people. Aunt Grace and Uncle Emilio, the anniversary couple. The Delgados from down the street, who knew Ranger since he was a baby. His other sisters, Isabella and Michaela, and his brother Marco.

There was a huge cake with sparklers sticking out of it dedicated to Aunt Grace and Uncle Emilio, who were my grandmother's age and actually Ranger's great aunt and uncle. We'd picked up place cards at the door and were seated with his siblings and their families. Thank God the children had a table, and a dedicated babysitter, to themselves so we could talk and I could get to know his family.

Everyone was warm and friendly and once the band started playing, Ranger's brother Marco asked me to dance. That got dagger eyes from Ranger but I accepted anyway; I had a feeling he wanted to talk to me.

And talk he did.

He told me that they never met Rachel until the judge's chambers wedding and that judging by how his brother looked at me, I must be very special. I'd already heard that he looked at me like I was lunch, so I guessed that part wasn't new, but I was surprised about Rachel. I'd have to ask Ranger later.

Ranger broke in before the dance was over. I knew he didn't like sharing but this was ridiculous. Jeez. Wondered if there was a lot of sibling rivalry between them?

"Were you jealous?" I asked him as the music changed to a slow song.

"I don't like seeing anybody's hands on you but mine," he told me honestly.

I just shook my head at that one. What a control freak. As we danced towards the other side of the room, we both noticed double French doors that led to a small terrace.

"Let's go outside, Babe," he said, nodding to them.

It was cold and no one was out there but I followed him anyway. I knew he didn't like these things and he probably needed some air. There was a small stone bench against one side and he pulled me towards it and sat me down. I assumed he would sit down next to me, but he didn't. Instead he got down on one knee.

"Let's get married, Babe," he said, pulling a small jeweler's case from inside his jacket pocket. This was sudden, since just a week ago I found out that he wanted to be with me and Rex _and_ that his family knew all about me. I didn't know what to say but I knew this opportunity might not arise again for a long time if I told him it was too soon.

"You know I love you more than anything." "Babe?" he asked when I still hadn't replied.

"I love you too, Ranger…"

"I know this is sudden, but it seemed like the perfect place to ask you. Will you marry me?"

I bit my bottom lip before replying. "Yes," I finally said and he put the ring on my left hand. It was a perfect fit, just like he was to me. Then he kissed me.

And believe it or not, we never saw the New Year ring in.


End file.
